Therapy Intensives 

Therapy Intensives typically last 3-4 hours but can be extended to a full day or multiple days, depending on your needs and goals.

Therapy Intensives can be more effective for certain issues, allowing for faster progress. However, they can also complement ongoing weekly therapy. We'll determine the best approach for your unique situation.

I'll provide you with preparatory materials, such as worksheets or journaling prompts. It's also important to clear your schedule for the day of the intensive and, ideally, the following day for reflection and self-care.

While I tailor each intensive to the particular client and their needs, there are usually some common threads.  

For intensives that launch the process of therapy, I will spend time with you digging in to explore your goals for therapy; I also take time to gather background information about how you came to be the person you are today. Your family, relationship, and cultural background is always relevant to how you process current situations. This information informs how I conceptualize the issues you’re bringing to therapy, and how I proceed with the therapeutic process. You may be surprised just how much time we spend discussing background information. However, I find that the background information often provides the missing puzzle pieces that clients can’t see…they can’t see the water they’re swimming in, so to speak. Often, a few months into therapy, it's clear that we would not be having the "A-ha!" moments we are having without the connections that were revealed exploring this background.  

The process of piecing together the many loose threads of historical information usually spans months of therapy--and that, in my opinion, ultimately delays insight and therefore progress. Taking the time in an intensive to dig deep on some key questions provides a huge boost to the productivity of therapy, and ultimately is very much worth the effort.  

During the intensive session, I will often take time to ask questions to start you thinking about how certain situations in your past may connect with your current issue. I will provide reflections about dynamics I see at play that are relevant, and begin synthesizing all the information to work out the underlying patterns of interaction and dysfunction that are keeping you stuck. By the time you leave the session (or sessions), you will likely feel both somewhat depleted from the emotional work you've just done, and at the same time invigorated from making fresh insights about your situation. Ultimately, you will feel hope, as you see glimmers of possibility for change.  

Intensives can be…well, intensive! That is, they can be emotionally intense. This is to be expected…if you aren't tapping in to some big emotions during this time, you probably aren't getting your money's worth, to be honest. Your emotional well-being during an intensive is my utmost concern! For this reason, I structure my intensives with an agenda that includes regular short unstructured breaks. I also plan times for us to focus on mindfulness, get outside into the fresh air, stretch and shake out our muscles (even dance, if you want!), and share brief guided meditations. To close our time together, I will give you some easy exercises you can use for self-care and emotional self-regulation over the coming days. 

In the ideal world, clients would treat intensives not just as financial investments, but as investments in creating emotional space for change. I advise my clients to set aside the day after their intensive for self-care and relaxation. I want you to have the opportunity to take a break from things that are emotionally taxing, but also from immersive activities that divert your attention from the topics we covered (such as a workday, or diving back into parenting). This means, ideally, planning a vacation day following our time together. You want to provide an opportunity for your mind to wander back to what we talked about, and start making connections that foster fresh insights, wisdom, and readiness for change.  

Often I will ask clients to come to the intensive already having thought through certain topics. I guide this preparatory work by providing worksheets or short videos of journaling prompts that I ask clients to complete in advance of our scheduled sessions. This preparation is important, as it's an investment in the productivity and ultimately the success of our time together.